How the Music for ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Comes Together Every Week
One of America’s most beloved and long-running competition shows, Dancing With the Stars , begins its 35th season on Sept.
15 and 16 on ABC and Disney +.
Though every season brings a new slate of stars — including Ciara Miller, Julia Stiles, Amber Glenn and Jenna Dewan for this fall’s cast — Dancing With the Stars has had one constant over the last 17 seasons: music director Ray Chew .
Chew, leading a 14 piece band, has played an instrumental role in modernizing the music of the show, taking it from a classic ballroom feel to one that reacts in real time to pop culture trends.
He’s led his crew of musicians through a recreation of hit Broadway musical Wicked , a night of TikTok viral hits and just about every genre, tempo and style.
To pull it off is no easy feat.
DWTS is shot in real time, and the music director tells Billboard his average show day begins at 3:30 AM, and doesn’t end until the show wraps that evening.
Throughout the week, his team is also racing against the clock to create arrangements for songs the choreographers are picking in real time, a process he lovingly refers to as “unbaking the cake,” or trying to sleuth out each element of the song so that his musicians can rework it in a matter of days.
Meanwhile, the show’s music supervisor, Nancy Severinsen, is working to clear the rights for the songs, which, as Chew explains, doesn’t always work.
“To clear one song, it could have two writers, [or] it could even have seven publishers,” Chew explains.
“You got to contact everybody, and everybody’s not waiting around on their phone to be contacted.
Some of the music clearance happen right up until the last minute.” He notes that even on the Wicked night they have to rework their original plans to satisfy the vision of the original rights holders of the music.
Still, Chew takes it all stride — he knows how to work under the pressure of live TV.
He got his start in the band for Saturday Night Live back in the 1980s, and then has gone on to music direct everything from the Grammy Awards, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Miss Universe, the Emmys, the BET Awards, American Idol , Showtime at the Apollo and more.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.billboard.com — the content belongs to Billboard.
